Would you guys trade Aldridge for Westbrook?

Aldridge/Miller/Babbitt for Westbrook/Ibaka? I can dream right? And no I didn't do any salary cap calculations.

 

Thanks for reminding me of that team. It was kind of one-dimensional with Durant doing so much of the heavy lifting, especially considering how many other talented guys there were on that team. But it just kept fucking working.

Still, it's not like Durant is really getting frozen out. He's getting 20 shots/game in the playoffs.

 

You're kidding right? But he is the closest thing to D-Rose.

 

I think you're going by how he appears rather than the actual results. This last season, he had a 42.7% Assist Rate, which means he assisted on 42.7% of his team's baskets. That's an unbelievably elite Assist Rate. The season before, it was 38.7%, which is still great.

He might look like a scorer who's uninterested in passing, but he actually creates a lot for his teammates. He actually compares extremely well to Derrick Rose as an athletic, scoring point guard who creates for teammates a lot.

 

I read that DWILL likes living in manhattan and wants to stay with the Nets if they add another star. He was injured this year, but is still the 2nd best PG in the league IMO.

Rose is #1 no doubt.

 

He's averaging nearly 30 FGA's per game in this series. He is not a PG.

 

He averaged more points, assists, and rebounds than Andre Miller. Is Miller a PG?

 

Westbrook is better than Rose in my opinion. Same athleticism, better rebounding, better defender. Swap Rose with Westbrook and people would be having the same complaints about Rose while Westbrook would be MVP.

People are naturally criticizing Westbrook because he's playing alongside the best scorer in the NBA, and they would be right about that. But it terms of pure talent, I think Westbrook is close to Durant, and probably better than every guard in the league except Wade.

So would I do it? Yeah, I probably would. We would have a gaping hole at the bigs though, so it would have to be followed up with more trades.

 

He's assisting on over a third of his team's baskets in this year's playoffs. He is a point guard.

 

Except when it came to the Memphis series during crunch time. Then, he changed. Don't know why or what is up, but it was weird and disturbing. In a way, it was like an All-Star player who chokes in the playoffs with their shooting percentage plummeting, unforced turnovers, blown layups, etc. Westbrook "choked" by forgetting about team offense and his team's best player.

 

Because he is hogging the ball. He is insanely ball dominant right now.

 

Listen, if Oden were to be healthy and mature (on the court) over a full season - Andre Miller would get us to the Championship!

The question PA needs to be asking is: Do we give up on Oden now? Or do we build a team around the prospects of a healthy Oden?

 

Or it could be a small sample of playing poorly.

Most point guards are ball-dominant. They want the ball in their hands to make the decisions. Bad ones call their own number even when they're not the best choice for that possession, good ones either call their own number or create for someone else, depending on who has the best chance for success on that possession. The numbers suggest that, by and large, Westbrook is creating for others quite a bit.

 

LaMarcus can play either big man spot, besides him we have a question mark in Oden and a 38yr old Camby. I don't think Westbrook is going to be at the perenial all-star level, he'll be a borderline all-star. We can find an acceptable guard much easier than an acceptable big man. I wouldn't trade LA for him although anybody else on the roster I would, but without LA I don't think we have a chance of OKC trading him.

 

I'd seriously consider this trade, but would end up rejecting it because I see Aldridge as creating better chemistry than a scoring point guard would- if Durant is not getting enough shots, what would happen with our cast of lesser scorers? Also, this would leave a huge hole in the middle.

That said, I wouldn't be offended at trading any number of Blazers for Kevin Durant- including staff like HCP!

 

I would not trade LaMarcus for Marbury 2.0 under any circumstances.

Westbrook is completely overrated.

 

He is a great player you can't argue that. He created for his teammates even in crunch times through the regular season and a lot during the Denver season. What has me baffled is his "its all me" attitude that he has had this Memphis series. So many times he has taken a long time to just pass the ball when they needed a basket. His game seems very limited this series in crunch time if he can't get to the basket. I don't care who you are, if KD is on your team you get him the ball in crunch time and Westbrook hasn't really done this the last few minutes of games vs Memphis.
It's a disturbing sign if the coaches aren't telling him to do it, and if it doesn't change I can see him and Durant getting into it often on and off the court.

 

Yes, during crunch time, when you want your All-Star players not "choking". Dude has failed when it really, really mattered, in a couple of games against the 8th seed they had a chance to win.

Kevin Fucking Durant is on his team.

I don't care what you say about his stats over the season or during the playoffs as a whole. When the game was on the line, Westbrook couldn't manage to get Durant the ball very often. And for long stretches he didn't even make any effort whatsoever to look Durants way. That is a big, big, big problem.